Vote yes and co-ordinate action to end the pay freeze

I've just voted 'yes' in the consultation being undertaken by my union, UNISON and the other campus unions in further education in Wales.
The consultation will determine whether we are balloted for strike action in pursuit of our pay claim. The Welsh colleges have decided not to make a cost of living award this year.
Our unions estimate that in the last 6 years the value of our incomes have fallen by 18% in real terms. The fall in our wages is driving a number of our members into poverty. A decisive vote for action is needed to provide a mandate to our unions to organise the action that will be needed to halt the race to the bottom.
We also need to link the fight on our wages to a campaign to demand increased funding from the Welsh Government and to halt the cuts in education.
UNISON members in the NHS in Wales have just voted for strike action on pay and there is a growing movement of local government branches to overturn the suspension of the local authority strikes. We have different employers but we all face the same catastrophic fall in wages and living standards and all caused by the cuts of the Con-Dems.
We can't rely on Labour to protect us from Con-Dem cuts - Labour councils and the Welsh Government simply pass them on. So it's up to us to halt the race to the bottom on our wages and striking together provides our best chance of breaking the pay freeze.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition  is the political no cuts alternative that, unlike Labour, backs workers fighting to defend their wages, jobs and services. TUSC representatives also commit to voting against all cuts.
Ronnie Job

Send a message to Swansea Council - vote for the no-cuts, socialist candidate in the Uplands by-election!

I'm Ronnie Job, intending to stand for the Trades Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the council by-election in Uplands Ward.

Who I am:

• Education worker.
• UNISON steward.
• Secretary of Swansea Trades Council.
• Member of the Socialist Party (and before that, Militant) for over 25 years.

Standing because I’m a trade unionist:

I’m standing because I’m a trade unionist and I’m fed up of a Labour council attacking its own workforce because councillors prefer to make Con-Dem cuts rather than fighting them:

The Labour Group has been in power in Swansea Council for 2 years but it:

• Employs hundreds of workers on zero-hours contracts
• Has still not implemented the Living Wage
• Is cutting and outsourcing jobs
• Has told members of my own union branch and other council workers, facing a loss of income, to accept new contracts and “sign or be sacked”.

Standing up for council jobs and services:

I’m standing because I value council services. I sat in the public gallery earlier this year as the Council passed a budget for £26 million of cuts to services this year. Not one Labour councillor voted against these cuts or the proposal to make £45 million cuts over 3 years. That figure has now risen to £70 million as the Labour Welsh Government has passed on even more Con-Dem cuts and still not one Labour councillor has had the courage to speak out or vote to protect their constituents’ jobs and services.

Labour councillors often make statements like “it’s better we make cuts than somebody else does”, as a justification for voting Tory cuts.

“Better for whom?” is what I want to know.

• Is it better for the worker in social care on a zero hours contract and not getting paid for their travelling time, if it’s a Labour council imposes those conditions?
• Is it better for users of adult day care services that it is Labour councillors who are threatening to sell off or axe them?

If a Labour council passes on Tory cuts then the only people I think it’s better for is Labour councillors. Do they really mean, “it’s better we GET PAID TO make cuts than somebody else does”?

The central commitment that every TUSC candidate makes is to vote against all cuts.

Who the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition are:

The Trades Unionists and Socialist Coalition is exactly what it says on our banner. We are ordinary people - trades unionists, workers, users of council services who don’t believe we, our families and our communities should be made to pay for a crisis that was not of our making.

Socialism the alternative:

We’re socialists because if capitalism, this system of crisis based on profit, can’t afford decent council services provided by workers paid enough to be able to provide for their families in turn, then we can’t afford capitalism. Our vision of socialism is where the wealth and resources or our society are used for the needs of our community not the profits of a rich few.

Don’t waste an opportunity to send a message to Welsh Labour:

There are no planned council elections in Wales until at least 2017. This may well be the last chance before then that voters in Uplands have to vote for an alternative to the cuts-consensus of all established parties.

Don’t waste the opportunity to send a clear ‘no more cuts’ message by voting for the only no-cuts, socialist candidate in this by-election.

How serious was Labour about scrapping the Bedroom Tax?

The news that Swansea's 2 MPs were among 47 Labour MPS who did not vote in the debate on the Bedroom Tax, tabled by their own party, and the suggestion that Labour MPs didn't vote because they were 'paired' with Tory counterparts in a gentlemen's agreement, prompted me to send this letter of protest to local publications and news programmes..

Dear Sir,

I note that Swansea's two MPs, Geraint Davies and Sian James, were among the 47 Labour MPs who didn't vote on their party's motion to immediately scrap the Bedroom Tax.

I don't know what reasons the two had for not participating in the vote and it may be they had good reasons not to be there. Having said that, I would have expected them to have informed their constituents, in that case, why they could not attend a vote on an issue that is so crucial to thousands of families in the city, some of them potentially facing eviction due to not being able to afford to pay bedroom tax.

A number of acquaintances have suggested that maybe they were 'paired' with Tory MPs and indeed, Labour Party whips have put out a statement to the effect that this was the reason why many of the 47 Labour MPs weren't present.

For anybody who is not familiar with the concept of 'pairing', this is the parliamentary guide: http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/pairing/

Pairing allows MPs from opposite parties to enter into an agreement that if one can't attend a debate, the other also agrees not to attend. There are a couple of important points to be made here.

1) This is not a parliamentary rule but a voluntary agreement.

2) Pairing is not used for important political issues.

Labour's decision to pair so many of their MPs on this issue suggests that this debate was more about posturing in the opening shots of what promises to be an 18-month election campaign rather than a serious attempt to end the misery caused by the bedroom tax.

It seems that Labour prefers so-called gentlemen's agreements with a Con-Dem government of millionaires than fighting for poor constituents, who seem to be little more than voting fodder to them. The bedroom tax may not be a serious political issue for Labour MPs who agree to be 'paired' but it is extremely serious for tenants who can't afford it, potentially facing eviction.

It reinforces the feeling that parliament is a club, with obscure rules most of us don't understand, the main purpose of which is to provide MPs with a gravy train to ride.

If Labour wants to convince us they are serious about getting rid of the bedroom tax then they should immediately instruct all Labour councils to stop harassing and even threatening with eviction, people who can't afford to pay bedroom tax.

I am a member of the Socialist Party which believes that elected representatives should have the same income as the people they represent. We call for MPs to commit to being 'a workers' MP on a worker's wage'. We don't believe in entering into gentlemen's agreements with people that have caused so much misery for working class communities. And we demand an immediate 'no evictions' commitment for bedroom tax non-payers.

Labour MPs who didn't vote in the bedroom tax may just have put themselves at the head of the list for an electoral challenge by Trades Unionist and Socialist Coalition (which the Socialist Party is a constituent part of) candidates at the general election.

Ronnie Job, previous and potential Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in Swansea

Swansea Labour takes to streets.. to make Con-Dem cuts

Swansea's Labour councillors have been taking to the streets on the issue of cuts..

BUT not to fight them. They're part of a PR campaign for £45 million of Con-Dem cuts. They want our help in identifying which services to axe or outsource and which groups of workers to sack.

If a Labour councillor approaches you to help them identify Con-Dem cuts, tell them to resign. Then maybe we can get representatives who will fight the Con-Dems not make their cuts.

Ronnie Job, TUSC Wales supporter

Don't let Swansea's Labour council throw you overboard!

Swansea’s Labour Council will make £45 million of cuts to services and jobs over the next 3 years and they want your help to do it!

The Council’s consultation on what services to cut, as they attempt to make £45 million of cuts, is called ‘Sustainable Swansea’. I tried the web page advertised in the booklet of the same name that the Council has issued; it didn’t work and I got an invalid website message! Not an auspicious start, especially as one of the ideas they put forward to save money is to “Create online digital services so they can normally be the first point of contact with the council.”

“Should the council reduce the number of people it employs?” is one question posed in the consultation. It is quite clear that the Council sees a large part of its savings coming from cuts affecting council staff. The booklet tries to create the impression that these can be achieved through “..voluntary changes to contracts, early retirement and voluntary redundancy.” The idea that workforce changes would be voluntary cannot be taken seriously when, at the moment, the Council is trying to force through cuts to workers’ terms and conditions and council workers have been told to ‘sign or be sacked’.

Services will also be slashed; the booklet makes clear that “..we will not have the money to continue to do all that we do now.” Those services that survive the cuts could well be a lot less accessible to the people that need them most. ‘Value for money’ is a phrase repeated throughout the booklet and there is a proposal to, “Reduce subsidies to services, increase or introduce charges” for council services.

In his Evening Post column, Labour Council Leader, David Phillips, used a strange analogy; he suggested that if the council now is a super-tanker, after the cuts it will be a speedboat. A speedboat might be faster but it only of use to a select few. Does he plan to throw overboard most of the workforce and council service users? Don’t let Labour cut you adrift without a life-jacket, throw them out instead and get councillors who will represent us and fight cuts not implement them. Build Trade Unionists and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) as an alternative to fight all cuts and march, protest and strike together, council workers and council service users united, to defeat these cuts.
Ronnie Job, potential TUSC candidate in next Council/Assembly elections

This is a response sent to the Evening Post to today's column 'From a tanker to a speed boat' by Labour council leader, David Phillips, outlining the options the council is looking at to make £45 million cuts.

A Welsh alternative to royal mail privatisation but what's needed is common ownership with workers' control and management...

Plaid Cymru is the first party in Wales to suggest that in the event of Royal Mail privatisation, Wales should go a different way. However while opposed to Con-Dem outright privatisation, the vision put forward by Leanne Wood stops short of full public ownership in the sense that a socialist would understand it.

What she is putting forward is creating an arms-length company that would run mail services in Wales by permission of the Welsh Government, something similar to the position with Cardiff Wales Airport. It is also similar to councils hiving off services to arms-length trusts/companies. Council unions oppose such half steps to privatisation because the drive for profitability inevitably leads to poorer terms and conditions for the workforce and a poorer, more expensive, service to the public.

Socialists and trade unionists in Wales must give all our support to the CWU in their battle to defeat the privatisation of the Royal Mail. This battle has not been fought yet and we shouldn't accept it as lost, especially if CWU members were to link this battle with the struggles of other trade unionists who are also fighting the Con-Dems, such as the FBU who took strike action this week. Co-ordinated action, particularly in the form of a 24 hour general strike would shake this weak and divided coalition and could be an important step to not only defeating Royal Mail privatisation but bringing them down.

We need to fight privatisation and fight to win but should privatisation go ahead, we should demand that the Welsh Government bring the Welsh postal service into public ownership but under democratic public control, which means putting those who understand the service best, workers and trade unionists that deliver it and the public that use it, in charge. This could be a beacon to encourage the fight for re-nationalisation in England as well.

Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour to make cuts together?

As Labour Councils in Wales are proving more and more willing to pass on Con-Dem cuts, making a mockery of the claim made by too many Labour-supporting trade union leaders in Wales that the Welsh Government protects Welsh workers from the worst of Con-Dem cuts, some trade unionists may be tempted to look at Plaid Cymru as a left alternative.

There couldn't be a starker demonstration that Plaid Cymru is another 'cuts' party, ready and willing to attack public sector workers and the services they provide than the offer publically made this week by Plaid Cymru to join the ruling Labour Group in a formal coalition on Carmarthenshire Council and assist them to find up to £18 million of cuts. The leader of the Labour Group has stated the Council needs to implement what he calls a 'tsunami of cuts' and Plaid Cymru councillors want to help him identify which groups of workers or which services will suffer to pay for them! Plaid Cymru with this statement, confirms its position in the 4 parties of cuts in Wales.

There are no planned council elections in Wales next year, meaning the next chance that most of us will get to vote is the general election. We need to build the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) Wales now in order that we can provide a genuine, fighting, socialist alternative to workers, trade unionists and working class communities in Wales. The Con-Dems have 4 parties to carry out their cuts in Wales, isn't it time we had an alternative to fight them?